Sam Burman has been competing in the E2E Solutions Thundersport GP3 series over the Bank Holiday weekend, this time on the short, but very fast, Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Riding her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125 she secured a pair of top ten finishes over the two day meeting.
 
During the one and only qualifying session, Burman remained on the track for the entire 20 minutes, completing 22 laps of the 1.19 mile circuit, with her best times coming on the final couple of laps to place her in 12th position on the grid of 25 competitors. She had experienced some issues with front end chatter, and concluded that she couldn’t have ridden any quicker.
 
The team had made some changes to the suspension for Sunday afternoon’s ‘Superpole’ race, which was run over 15 laps. Burman started from 12th position on row three, nearest the pit wall, which isn’t ideal, but she made a good start, and rode strongly in the mid-pack making up several places during the race to be battling with Arnie Shelton in the latter stages for eighth position, narrowly losing out to finish in a respectable ninth position at the chequered flag. Burman had enjoyed the race, and was pleased with the changes in set up.
 
Further subtle changes were made to the suspension prior to warm up on Monday morning, with Burman reporting back a good feeling with the bike, putting her in confident mood for the upcoming two races.
 
Starting once more from the third row of the grid, Burman was running in ninth position when the race was red flagged due to an incident. The re-started race was to be run over 10 laps, and as the lights went out to start the race, Burman made a brilliant start, taking the inside line into Paddock Hill bend.

Over the following laps she would close in on the group battling for fourth position, and begin to come through the group, making her way up to sixth position by almost half race distance. Unfortunately, on her next lap she experienced a terminal problem with the bike, forcing her into retirement. Upon inspection back at the awning, it was discovered that the ignition pick up had broken, which was frustrating, but also unlucky. Nevertheless, the failed component was replaced by her team, and she would have one final run for championship points later in the day.
 
With her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125 back in good shape, Burman once again took up her position on the third row of the grid for her final race of the Bank Holiday meeting. Making another good start, she would pull through the field once more, battling for a top five position and looking to close in on fourth. However, as the 15 lap race progressed, she started to experience some front end grip issues, and began to struggle to hold her lines, with some of the other riders beginning to re-take her as the race came to a close. She would eventually finish in tenth position, which was both an achievement, but also disappointing, as she felt she didn’t really get the result her hard work deserved.
 
Burman and her team are now busy analyzing the recent results and the issues that have been hindering her progress over recent events, and have some ideas and changes to try at the next round in a couple of weeks time, so although being frustrated, the team remains very positive and confident of a strong finish to their 2009 season.
 
“If I’m honest, I’m disappointed with the results that were achieved at Brands Hatch. I was looking forward to the meeting and confident of a good finish," said Burman.

"I feel that although we didn’t get the results on paper, I was riding really well and was just hindered with a few problems. I’m really excited about the next round at Anglesey.”
 
Sam Burman is back on track over the weekend of 12-13 September, riding her Bartonfield Ltd Honda RS125 in the penultimate round of this season’s Thundersport GP3 Championship at Anglesey.